Thor: Ragnarok The Official News and Speculation Thread - Part 10

[Loden Greatstorm]

Nice.

 

[Mjölnir]

Everything You Need To Know About Thor Ragnarok:
http://collider.com/thor-ragnarok-spoilers-trivia/

SPOILERS:

Spoiler

Thor: Ragnarok is set about two years after the events of Avengers: Age of Ultron. The film ‘cold opens’ with Thor held captive at Muspelheim by their ruler Surtur. After Thor defeats the Fire Demon, Thor travels back to Asgard – where Loki (now ruling under the guise of Odin) has brought the realm to the brink of ruin. In this disarray, Asgard becomes vulnerable to Hela, the Goddess of Death, who has been waiting patiently for the opportunity to destroy the realm once and for all. From there, Thor: Ragnarok skips around from planet-to-planet. Thor and Loki travel to Earth to meet Doctor Strange, and later Thor’s taken prisoner on the planet Sakaar, where he’s forced to battle in a gladiatorial ring against his former ally The Hulk.

Previously Asgard has been depicted as a picturesque, beautiful refuge – shiny, glimmering, spotless… Thor: Ragnarok, however, will show what the ‘slums’ of Asgard look like – which, if I’m being honest, still looks pretty nice. The houses are slightly worn, paint fading with mismatched stones; the benches are rusted; a couple burn marks are on the ground beneath faded candles… But, overall, I’d still live there. Regardless – Hela travels to the ‘poor’ areas of Asgard to corrupt and weaken the realm from the inside out.
Per producer Brad Winderbaum – “[The planet] Sakaar is like the island of lost souls. We think about a planet as orbiting a star and having day and night. This is a planet that’s frozen in space between an incredible quantity of wormholes that have been spitting things out into this place for eons and eons. Essentially if anything goes wrong in your intergalactic travels in the MCU, you’re going to get spat out into the toilet of the universe… which is this planet.
thor-ragnarok-jeff-goldblum
Image via Marvel Studios
Sakaar is ruled by The Grandmaster (Jeff Goldblum), who has built a society based off giant gladiatorial battles. “It’s a very violent, hedonistic culture,” Winderbaum stated “You’re living in a place where anything can fall out of the sky at any moment and crush you, so there’s a very ‘seize the day’ aspect to the world there, which is a great contrast to Asgard.”

At the time of the set-visit, Jeff Goldblum hadn’t shot a scene yet, but was slated to film for eight days later in the month.
The Grandmaster is an “elusive yet fun character… He’s like the ringleader of the circus on Sakaar, but he’s also a little bit of a brutal dictator – although he’s completely unaware. To him: it’s all-good all the time. “
In Sakaar, Hulk has been in ‘Hulk-form’ for two years straight, having given up on that puny Bruce Banner; yet still, The Hulk feels miserable. To cheer the big green fella up and keep him as the star attraction in his gladiatorial battles, The Grand Master decorates Sakaar with ‘Hulk piñatas’, posters and memorabilia – all to show how much The Hulk is loved/appreciated there.

Brad Winderbaum revealed that they had the idea of integrating Hulk into a Thor film fairly early on. “In the earliest development of Thor, we were looking at Planet Hulk as an inspiration maybe not even to integrate the Hulk into the franchise, but the idea of a planet where there’s gladiatorial games as a Thor predicament. It was a really cool idea to us. Somewhere in the early conversations, when it looked like it was going that way, it was a no brainer. It started off as like, ‘Could we put Hulk in there too?’ Then as soon as that sparked ignited, [Hulk] was married to the plot.”

It takes three people to bring The Hulk to life on set. Person One has a backpack connected to a ball above his head. This is done to give the other actors a reference point to where The Hulk’s head is in the shot/scene; Person Two has a Detailed Hulk Bust that approximates the look of The Hulk; and Person Three, known as ‘Green Steve’, is just decked out in green body paint from head to toe.
The true story behind ‘Green Steve’: “There’s no substitution for human flesh so you like take a guy in really good shape and you put on some good green make-up and you have them walk through the same space that The Hulk could.” VFX Supervisor Jake Morrison revealed, “You collect up all of these bits and pieces. It seems ludicrous when you’re here and you see this stuff. But the crazy thing is by the end of this picture, 1500 Visual Effects Artists will have worked on the show and none of them have been on set. None of them would have seen what it looked like on the day and each one of them generally will see a given shot as a series of flat images. So anything that you can give them that describes the light and the room and how things move and all the rest of it is invaluable later. So ‘Green Steve’ is called Green Steve ‘cause the original guy was called Green Steve. This is actually Green Jordan, but he’s kind of Green Steve Mark 3.”

Cate Blanchett’s stunt double for Thor Ragnarok: none other than Quentin Tarantino go-to star Zoe Bell

Blanchett, on set, has mo-cap dots all over her forehead to mark where a digital headwear will be placed in post. Per Jake Morrison, the decision to digitally create the helmet instead of practically having one on Blanchett was done to help the actress. “All we’re doing is adding the sprinkles on top. [The actors] are delivering the performances. You’re already working with the best ingredients. So for us we take an actor like Cate Blanchett and then bringing her into Hela, what we wanted to do is not tie her down with a physical costume that was over complicated or weighty.”
Morrison continued, “Whatever the costume ends up being or whatever approach we end up taking and whatever flourishes we add on later, it’s something that we want to be able to react to whatever Cate does. So if we say the character has a cape for example – the cape could be heavy, it could split into many different pieces. It could behave like it’s underwater. All these things we could experiment with, but the key is we can base it upon Cate’s physical performance. The reason we got the motion capture stuff on her is we’re now recording literally 120 samples per second of where her body is – exactly how her wrist moves or elbow moves… That’s all captured in the system. If she does a pirouette or a turn or anything, we then have the option to make her costume behave in symphony with her action. We don’t have the actors feel in any way like their motion is restricted by the costume. We’re trying to let the performance drive the picture and then we add the fun stuff on afterwards.”

The Warriors Three will appear in Thor: Ragnarok

Unfortunately it doesn’t appear things have worked out between Thor and Jane Foster (Natalie Portman). According to Chris Hemsworth: Thor Ragnarok has “some very respectable fun with how that relationship may have come to a mutual end.”

What’s Thor’s arc in Thor: Ragnarok? Per Winderbaum “The idea of worthiness, what makes somebody worthy, what helps someone find self worth is at the core of Thor as a character. That theme remains central in this film; however in the first film where he was a petulant prince who had to learn humility, in this one he wants to become a better man and learn to accept himself as a leader, as a king, as someone who can lead Asgard.”

Thanks for all the info in the various threads. All this sounds absolutely fantastic. It's amazing how new things from this film just keeps building my hype.

 

[HammerDown]

Several important props and concept art seen in the set visit from different outlets.

Spoiler

- The Infinity Gauntlet.
- The Destroyer.
- The Milano. Starlord spaceship.
- The Broker from GOTG...

 

[HammerDown]

Another look at the character posters.

 

[Dr. Evil]

Everything You Need To Know About Thor Ragnarok:
http://collider.com/thor-ragnarok-spoilers-trivia/

SPOILERS:

Spoiler

Thor: Ragnarok is set about two years after the events of Avengers: Age of Ultron. The film ‘cold opens’ with Thor held captive at Muspelheim by their ruler Surtur. After Thor defeats the Fire Demon, Thor travels back to Asgard – where Loki (now ruling under the guise of Odin) has brought the realm to the brink of ruin. In this disarray, Asgard becomes vulnerable to Hela, the Goddess of Death, who has been waiting patiently for the opportunity to destroy the realm once and for all. From there, Thor: Ragnarok skips around from planet-to-planet. Thor and Loki travel to Earth to meet Doctor Strange, and later Thor’s taken prisoner on the planet Sakaar, where he’s forced to battle in a gladiatorial ring against his former ally The Hulk.

Previously Asgard has been depicted as a picturesque, beautiful refuge – shiny, glimmering, spotless… Thor: Ragnarok, however, will show what the ‘slums’ of Asgard look like – which, if I’m being honest, still looks pretty nice. The houses are slightly worn, paint fading with mismatched stones; the benches are rusted; a couple burn marks are on the ground beneath faded candles… But, overall, I’d still live there. Regardless – Hela travels to the ‘poor’ areas of Asgard to corrupt and weaken the realm from the inside out.
Per producer Brad Winderbaum – “[The planet] Sakaar is like the island of lost souls. We think about a planet as orbiting a star and having day and night. This is a planet that’s frozen in space between an incredible quantity of wormholes that have been spitting things out into this place for eons and eons. Essentially if anything goes wrong in your intergalactic travels in the MCU, you’re going to get spat out into the toilet of the universe… which is this planet.
thor-ragnarok-jeff-goldblum
Image via Marvel Studios
Sakaar is ruled by The Grandmaster (Jeff Goldblum), who has built a society based off giant gladiatorial battles. “It’s a very violent, hedonistic culture,” Winderbaum stated “You’re living in a place where anything can fall out of the sky at any moment and crush you, so there’s a very ‘seize the day’ aspect to the world there, which is a great contrast to Asgard.”

At the time of the set-visit, Jeff Goldblum hadn’t shot a scene yet, but was slated to film for eight days later in the month.
The Grandmaster is an “elusive yet fun character… He’s like the ringleader of the circus on Sakaar, but he’s also a little bit of a brutal dictator – although he’s completely unaware. To him: it’s all-good all the time. “
In Sakaar, Hulk has been in ‘Hulk-form’ for two years straight, having given up on that puny Bruce Banner; yet still, The Hulk feels miserable. To cheer the big green fella up and keep him as the star attraction in his gladiatorial battles, The Grand Master decorates Sakaar with ‘Hulk piñatas’, posters and memorabilia – all to show how much The Hulk is loved/appreciated there.

Brad Winderbaum revealed that they had the idea of integrating Hulk into a Thor film fairly early on. “In the earliest development of Thor, we were looking at Planet Hulk as an inspiration maybe not even to integrate the Hulk into the franchise, but the idea of a planet where there’s gladiatorial games as a Thor predicament. It was a really cool idea to us. Somewhere in the early conversations, when it looked like it was going that way, it was a no brainer. It started off as like, ‘Could we put Hulk in there too?’ Then as soon as that sparked ignited, [Hulk] was married to the plot.”

It takes three people to bring The Hulk to life on set. Person One has a backpack connected to a ball above his head. This is done to give the other actors a reference point to where The Hulk’s head is in the shot/scene; Person Two has a Detailed Hulk Bust that approximates the look of The Hulk; and Person Three, known as ‘Green Steve’, is just decked out in green body paint from head to toe.
The true story behind ‘Green Steve’: “There’s no substitution for human flesh so you like take a guy in really good shape and you put on some good green make-up and you have them walk through the same space that The Hulk could.” VFX Supervisor Jake Morrison revealed, “You collect up all of these bits and pieces. It seems ludicrous when you’re here and you see this stuff. But the crazy thing is by the end of this picture, 1500 Visual Effects Artists will have worked on the show and none of them have been on set. None of them would have seen what it looked like on the day and each one of them generally will see a given shot as a series of flat images. So anything that you can give them that describes the light and the room and how things move and all the rest of it is invaluable later. So ‘Green Steve’ is called Green Steve ‘cause the original guy was called Green Steve. This is actually Green Jordan, but he’s kind of Green Steve Mark 3.”

Cate Blanchett’s stunt double for Thor Ragnarok: none other than Quentin Tarantino go-to star Zoe Bell

Blanchett, on set, has mo-cap dots all over her forehead to mark where a digital headwear will be placed in post. Per Jake Morrison, the decision to digitally create the helmet instead of practically having one on Blanchett was done to help the actress. “All we’re doing is adding the sprinkles on top. [The actors] are delivering the performances. You’re already working with the best ingredients. So for us we take an actor like Cate Blanchett and then bringing her into Hela, what we wanted to do is not tie her down with a physical costume that was over complicated or weighty.”
Morrison continued, “Whatever the costume ends up being or whatever approach we end up taking and whatever flourishes we add on later, it’s something that we want to be able to react to whatever Cate does. So if we say the character has a cape for example – the cape could be heavy, it could split into many different pieces. It could behave like it’s underwater. All these things we could experiment with, but the key is we can base it upon Cate’s physical performance. The reason we got the motion capture stuff on her is we’re now recording literally 120 samples per second of where her body is – exactly how her wrist moves or elbow moves… That’s all captured in the system. If she does a pirouette or a turn or anything, we then have the option to make her costume behave in symphony with her action. We don’t have the actors feel in any way like their motion is restricted by the costume. We’re trying to let the performance drive the picture and then we add the fun stuff on afterwards.”

The Warriors Three will appear in Thor: Ragnarok

Unfortunately it doesn’t appear things have worked out between Thor and Jane Foster (Natalie Portman). According to Chris Hemsworth: Thor Ragnarok has “some very respectable fun with how that relationship may have come to a mutual end.”

What’s Thor’s arc in Thor: Ragnarok? Per Winderbaum “The idea of worthiness, what makes somebody worthy, what helps someone find self worth is at the core of Thor as a character. That theme remains central in this film; however in the first film where he was a petulant prince who had to learn humility, in this one he wants to become a better man and learn to accept himself as a leader, as a king, as someone who can lead Asgard.”

Spoiler

No Sif?

 

[Finarfiniel]

Okay, I didn't think it was possible to be any more excited for this film than I was yesterday. Today proved me wrong. I wish I could stop reading all this spoilery stuff, but I have no willpower whatsoever.

I love the character posters, the colours are amazing but I can't help but wish that each one had a more unique style to fit the individual character. Absolutely no complaints other than that though.

 

[legendkillin]

Just saw a tv spot during the game. Wow the music was great I hope it is in the music. Team Revengers!

 

[legendkillin]

Tv spot even said tickets on sale now. I didn't expect this to happen 2 months before release.

 

[KaijuDude1992]

Holy crap at that new tv spot. I hope they upload it soon because there was quite a bit of new footage. Surtur actually fighting Thor looked dope and I loved the Revengers line LMAO!!!!!!

 

[Gamma Ra]

Wow. Unexpected. The Hulk visuals look better and better.

 

[jel-leigh-bean]

The "Revengers" TV spot.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QX9sIukOsCw
[YT]QX9sIukOsCw[/YT]

 

[Loden Greatstorm]

Some cool new footage there.

 

[jaqua99]

Haha called the Surtur thing

 

[fancyarcher]

"Um the Revengers" - that line cracked me up. So good!

 

[The Shape]

New TV spot was dope.

 

[JtheDreamer]

Several important props and concept art seen in the set visit from different outlets.

Spoiler

- The Infinity Gauntlet.
- The Destroyer.
- The Milano. Starlord spaceship.
- The Broker from GOTG...

I was hoping we would get to see [BLACKOUT]The Destroyer again. Hopefully he's back to guarding Odin's vault.[/BLACKOUT]

 

[jaqua99]

So Thor defeats Surtur at the beginning. Hopefully he fights him when he is huge as well, and not just Hulk

 

[BigThor]

Thor is confirmed to be fire proof, MCU Thor's durability is one thing that continues to impress me.

 

[HammerDown]

OMG that new TV Spot looks epic. Best TV Spot yet. The visuals are out of this world. The music is on point. The arena looks amazing and the Grandmaster hologram is pretty futuristic and crazy to see. Surtur looks cool and the sword fiery effect too.

The "Revengers" cracked me up so hard. So funny.t:
I have read that the chemistry between Chris Hemsworth and Mark Ruffalo is gold and like they were made to share the screen together. Can't wait to see more of their interactions and I think it's gonna be a big standout of the hole movie.

 

[liveman789]

I like how we were discussing our disdain for the "team" line and it got way more focus in a spot released less than a day later lol.

 

[Ghostcrow13]

Loki fans are terrible...

They make me want Loki to be killed off screen and never mentioned again.

 

[Filmfan93]

That TV Spot was sweeet!

Visuals indeed get better and better.

 

[KaijuDude1992]

I was hoping we would get to see [BLACKOUT]The Destroyer again. Hopefully he's back to guarding Odin's vault.[/BLACKOUT]

Spoiler

Ok now that's exciting, especially seeing how much Guardians stuff in this. I know Taika said at Comic-Con that the clip of Thor being rescued by The Guardians was something that takes place in IW, but it sounds like they will definitely have some kind of role in the movie even if it's very small. I remember Tessa Thompson even saying they were filming more stuff that was cameo oriented. Also, I know I've said it before but The Infinity Gauntlet showing up has to be a sign of Thanos arriving at some point.

 

[KaijuDude1992]

Several important props and concept art seen in the set visit from different outlets.

Spoiler

- The Infinity Gauntlet.
- The Destroyer.
- The Milano. Starlord spaceship.
- The Broker from GOTG...

Spoiler

Ok now that's exciting, especially seeing how much Guardians stuff in this. I know Taika said at Comic-Con that the clip of Thor being rescued by The Guardians was something that takes place in IW, but it sounds like they will definitely have some kind of role in the movie even if it's very small. I remember Tessa Thompson even saying they were filming more stuff that was cameo oriented. Also, I know I've said it before but The Infinity Gauntlet showing up has to be a sign of Thanos arriving at some point.

 

[TeeKay]

Thor is confirmed to be fire proof, MCU Thor's durability is one thing that continues to impress me.

Are we sure though? Looks like he had a shield to me.